


Family

by LevitatingLesbian



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Red vs. Blue
Genre: Carolina is older but Church is a protective big brother, Family, Gen, I love these sibs..........., Sibling bickering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-14 01:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20183659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LevitatingLesbian/pseuds/LevitatingLesbian
Summary: Agent Carolina and AI fragment Epsilon- better known as Church- go through the motions of kicking ass and taking back stolen Freelancer tech, and also reflect on the fact that they are family.





	1. Chapter 1

"So… I was thinking…"

"Is now _really_ a good time, Church?" Carolina interrupted as she pistol whipped some poor bastard unconscious.

They had been following this lead for weeks, some secretive mercs who had gotten their hands on some fairly dangerous Freelancer tech. They had been elusive, but they'd been lucky enough to learn the location of their main outpost after many, many, many hours of searching radio signals and decrypting covert messages.

"Look, there are only three more guys behind the door guarding the Freelancer tech, then you'll have approximately... 5 minutes and 43 seconds to escape before their backup shows up." Epsilon said, tapping into the security cameras.

Carolina stretched her shoulders and adjusted her foot stance, "Only because you didn't warn me about the silent alarm button being within arms reach of a guard, who was placed at the most impossible angle to shoot." she retorted. 

Epsilon frowned in both indignation and remorse, but said nothing as he redirected power to her legs and watched her kick through the metal door like it was paper mache. 

_______________________________________________

Epsilon and Carolina both watched as the fire slowly ate away at the rest of the charred Freelancer wreckage. 

"Hey, I'm sorry about the silent alarm. When I was in bullet time, we miscalculated exactly how well the guard's reaction time would be. My bad." he sighed, sitting down on Carolina's shoulder.

"Its okay. Besides, we got out with all of the equipment, and I didn't even get shot this time. That's cancels it out a bit, I guess." she responded, her voice sounding tired but amused. "So, what was it you wanted to talk about back there?"

Epsilon gave a nervous laugh and raised a hand behind his head, "Well, I guess I was just wondering y'know, about how the Director is your dad and all and how I'm a copy of him… Like, does that mean I'm like, your dad? Oh _god_, this sounds even stupider out loud than it did in my head."

Carolina snorted and Epsilon didn't need to access her helmet screen to tell she had a dumb grin on her face, "Really? Is that what was on your mind? Am I just the daughter you've always wanted or something?"

"Augh, no- I mean, I'm being serious, all of this AI personality clone shit is weird! Am I, like, your uncle or something?"

"Oh god no, you're definitely nothing like the Director- at least how I knew him…. And you're nothing like an uncle, unless you want to count Tucker Junior as your nephew." 

Epsilon sagged and rolled his eyes, "Ugh, then like, what are we? It feels like we're more than just regular friends, to me it feels more like we're family? And we _are_ technically related, yknow?"

Carolina nodded and paused. She brought her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knee. "Well, since we've crossed out father figure, despite your nagging sometimes-"

"Oh, definitely."

"- and you are not an uncle to anyone besides an alien-"

"Shut up."

"- the only thing I can really think of is us being siblings?" Carolina sighed. "I mean, the Director did create you, or at least, the Alpha AI that you originated from."

Epsilon mulled over it, "We certainly do _bicker_ like a brother and sister. Not to mention, we're both psychologically about the same age. Yeah, I can definitely see myself being your older brother."

"Excuse me? I'm obviously the oldest." Carolina said as she lightheartedly jabbed him in the holographic ribs. Epsilon's armor shifted from purple and pink, to bright green, and back to light blue. 

Carolina cocked her head in curiosity and Epsilon flopped on his back in defeat. "Theta says that he's always wanted a big sister and Delta says that chronologically, you are older than me-" Epsilon raised a finger upward in defiance, "-but I will stand by the fact that I am the older one, based on me being modeled after the Director when he was a year or two older than you."

"Oh please, like that counts. Maybe from now on I'll call you 'baby bro' or something."

"If you do that I am going to call you 'little sis' in front of every group we fight," Epsilon shook his fist at her, "you might kill them all but not before the last thing they hear is you being referred to as _little_." he proclaimed, earning a loud snorting laugh from Carolina. 

As their laughter died down, so did the fire. Carolina stretched as she stood back up, and slung her gear over her shoulder. 

"Where to next?" she asked aloud, and Epsilon's hologram fizzled out as he focused on their next lead. 

"Aha! Here we go- there have been rumors about some special tech being sold at some black market auctions in a few weeks- it's a few quadrants from here, but we'll have plenty of time to make it." he said, pulling up the info to her HUD, "But- we'll have to be careful. Word has been getting around about a certain badass stealing Freelancer stuff from criminal operations."

"I guess we're popular now. Bet you thought you'd never see the day." Carolina cracked. Epsilon groaned halfheartedly, and gave her the coordinates.


	2. Chapter 2

Epsilon felt himself unravel as a bomb blew Carolina clear across the warehouse floor.

"_'LINA! NO!_" he shouted, not entirely in his own voice.

Their lead was a false positive- no Freelancer gear- but despite their caution, they were ambushed by mercenaries like the ones they had raided the week before. 

Epsilon pulled himself together, monitoring her vitals and running her healing unit at full power- her ribs were bruised and she might have a mild concussion, but she would live. 

Carolina's blue armor flashed back into view as her dark green disguise failed. She grunted wordlessly and heaved herself off the ground, lurching back and forth while she regained her senses.

The mercenaries grew closer, and Carolina was still too disoriented to properly defend herself or escape. Epsilon pushed the healing unit to its limit, panicking as one of the mercs raised his gun.

He flickered into bullet time. He knew he wouldn't be able to get Carolina out of this one. He ran equations in his head, but faltered at the sight of Sigma and Delta manifesting in front of him.

Sigma pointed wordlessly at the gun barrel. Epsilon ran the model- a UNSC gun, manufactured during the operation period of Project Freelancer, often used by sim troopers and guards at the time. Not only was this mercenary carrying it, it was also being used by at least half of the other visible mercs.

Epsilon shot a look at Delta, who responded, "There is a 95.93% likelihood of being able to interfere with this form of weapon."

"To access them I would have to put slack on the healing unit and the armor. I would have to leave Carolina by herself."

Sigma faded, and in his place, Theta appeared. "But she's not by herself. We'll still be with her, it'll only be a few seconds, and then we can go back to her!" 

Epsilon saw the trigger of the gun being slowly pulled, and left Carolina's armor. Using all of his will, he jumped into the weapon as it was being fired, and forced it to jam. It exploded, taking the merc's fingers with it. Epsilon frantically jumped from weapon to weapon, jamming them and locking them one by one.

As soon as he started, he was finished, and buried himself back into Carolina's armor, ramping the healing unit back up. She was still disoriented, but was now able to move somewhat steadily. 

"Carolina we have to go! Now!", he urged, and she readied herself to run. Reluctantly, he withdrew power from the healing unit and funneled it to her legs, and she barrelled past confused, occasionally fingerless enemies.

She power jumped onto a steel beam, and with help from Epsilon, she shot a large chunk out of a weak part of the ceiling. Carolina was in pain, but she braced herself and leapt towards their new exit, just as the remaining mercenaries aimed their guns.

Carolina scrambled away as fast as she could, racing through the dark urban jungle of the city, until Epsilon convinced her it was safe in a nearby alleyway

"Hey, Carolina, sis- are you alright? Can you tell me if there's a wound I missed?" he asked, manifesting his holo in front of her.

"Epsilon, I'm fine. It hurts to breathe and my head is killing me, but I'm okay. I'll live." she panted, wincing.

"This is _my_ fault," he flickered teal and yellow, "You could have died because I wasn't careful enough-"

"Shut _up_, Church. You're probably the only reason I made it out of there." Carolina snapped. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself."

Epsilon shut up as told, and settled on her shoulder as she caught her breath. They stayed like that for a moment until Carolina gently spoke up again.

".....At least you didn't call me 'little sis' in front of them."

He gave an exhausted, hissing laugh, "Maybe if I did, you would have gotten angry enough to hold them all off by yourself."

Epsilon gave her the address of a cheap hotel- only 20 minutes away- and they worked their way to shelter. They had lived to fight another day, together.


End file.
